Heirot

Mizuki grimaced at the man's horrified screaming. Soran had only touched him, and now his eyes were locked onto her and she felt uncomfortable. Like someone who knew how to stop all this pain but could not, she had to follow orders. Her eyes cried out to help this man, end his pain with healing. To nurse him back to health was an instinct warring with her common sense to stay put.

But she could not tear her eyes from his, and his look sent chills of horror down her spine.

"Grown up toys, child," Micah said mirthlessly, his patience apparently dwindling rapidly. "Now I have some things to attend to. Remember your rules," he smiled and stood up, leaving the room. Outside the door, he fastened a string at both sides of the top of the doorway, far out of Rai's reach. "I will know if you open this door," he said, and walked away up the stairs.

* * *

"....going to....can't you see they're.....kill me!!" a frantic whisper faded in and out of the man's consciousness, his mind screaming for help amidst fits of senselessness.

Soran turned to the man solemnly and touched his bleeding arm again, pressing steadily agaisnt the wound. His other hand covere dthe man's mouth sternly, until his screaming dulled down in a sullen whimper. "Stay calm, and speak, and we'll have no further cause to harm you," Soran ordered, slowly removing his hand from his mouth, but not releasing the steady pressure on the wound. "Why were you outside the city tonight." The man's eyes widened helplessly and he moved to scream, but the rogue dug his finger deeper into the cut and stifled him with a yelp.

"It's a simple question. Answer and be done with it," Soran snapped.

"...kill me! Don't let him...me! Oh God, he'll kill me if I talk!" the man's thoughts raced desperately. The one scaring him most - it wasn't someone in this room.

Mizuki gritted her teeth against his agony. His stifled scream made her move an inch. Just an inch, reaching her arm out as if to stop Soran but then she brought it down. She kept her hands stiffly at her sides and let Soran do what he had to do.

"...kill me! Don't let him...me! Oh God, he'll kill me if I talk!" the man's thoughts raced desperately.

She closed her eyes and clamped her mouth shut. 'You'll die more painfully if you don't answer!' her mind screamed out at the broken man. 'Get your thoughts together and answer him you doomed fool! Do it!'

"NOOOO!!!" the man screamed, the word warping into a senseless moan. He stared hard at Mizuki, panting.

Soran's hands fell to hang at his sides; he'd withdrawn when the man screamed. Weeks ago, he'd been the one screaming, bound and hopeless and waiting for death. He was the wrong person for this job; he knew nothing the other men didn't about pain, except what it felt like, and that hardly helped his resolve. Why had Micah insisted they do this? He stared at the man, lacking the resolve to move toward him again.

"You're from Arken. That's the only reason you'd protect your knowledge so well. But that fact means that I absolutely must hear what you know," Soran said almost gently, calm and firm. God, he didn't want to do this in front of Mizuki. Why did Micah send her?

"I can't! He can't stop them...it's going to burn....they're all going to burn.....but when they find me, they won't let me.....wont' let me burn..burn...." the man ranted to himself frantically.

Mizuki had heard enough. Gods, she was clamping down on her teeth so hard they might've cracked! She rushed forward in a flurry of dark robes and came to the man's side without heeding Soran's presence. Her eyes looked steadily into the man's hectic ones, as if trying to calm him wordlessly. She reached out carefully, grasping his face gently in her hands and attempted to sooth his frantic words and thrashing.

"Hush now," Merciful Gods this man was just standing over the edge of death. "You are safe..." And she closed her eyes without thought and touched her forehead to his. Clearly words and forced pain were getting them nowhere fast, it was time she tried her powers again. Gently her own magic pried the man's dwindling, fear-filled aura and soothed it with her own.

THe man's wild eyes cleared slightly as surprise registered on his face, then slowly his features relaxed as if some undeniable peace had flooded through him. He could feel a calming aura melting with his, dulling the fear and pain. "Who are you, lady," he whispered hoarsely, eyes filled with awe. He stared at Mizuki as if she were the only thing that existed in the world at that moment.

Soran realized he'd forgotten to breathe and sucked in a tight breath, sinking back against the wall for support. For all his sternness, he really, really didn't want to do this. In front of him, the man lay calm under Mizuki's touch. Had Micah predicted this all along? Was this why he made her come? The thought angered him, but he only stood still and stared at Mizuki and the prisoner. She was doing something, though he couldn't explain it. It was like a tension was lifting out of the room.

As soon as the man was gone Rai stood up and began walking around the room, fiddling with things she found interesting. She finally made her way back to the hour glass that had caught her eye. She walked over and grabbed it, carrying it back to the chair. She sat the hourglass in the chair and then climbed up and took her seat. "Pretty!" she said, turning the hourglass upside down and watching the sand go down. She did this over and over, so amused by watching something so simple.

"Who are you lady?"

Mizuki lifted her forehead from his and moved away by a few inches. Her eyes were solemn as she was the only who realized the horrible truth that was about to come, and was already known.

"By the time this is done, my name and face will mean nothing to you," she told him truthfully, but the pleasing aura that was purposefully surrounding him gave the suffering man no room to feel panic.

"Now tell me," she said, swiftly changing the subject. She would not pry through the mind of this broken man. If she tried, she would no doubt kill him, and nothing would come of that. "Tell us what we desire to know." She was choosing her words carefully, so not to startle the man out of his peace.

"Too late...now," the man managed to say, though he was calm now, almost passive. "Almost wish...I could stop it for you, lady. But you see...they're already here," he said with a wry smile. He tried to shrug, and winced. "They were..fools to take me. Now the one who did this...they'll..." but his voice faded, and the hostage fainted on the table. "Five D," his mind rasped at Mizuki as his consciousness faded.

Soran stared at the man as he spoke, unable to believe that Mizuki had convinced him so easily. He couldn't put it together. Why was someone from Arken here? Who were "they"?

* * *

Across the hall from Rai, a cellar door opened from the outside with a muffled crack and a black-clad figure dropped into the room, closing the entrance behind him. He stalked quickly across the floor of the room and paused at the doorway, evaluating the hallway. The other doors were closed, one with a string across it. Suspicious...but he would look for his mark upstairs first. His boots padded down the hall and he made his way up the stairs.

"Five D..." Mizuki reppeated the phrase quietly. She felt his consciousness fade. He was in a coma and... would never come out of it. Even if she wanted to purge his mind now, she couldn't do it, he was so barely alive that whatever he could've showed her wouldn't come out clearly. She stepped away from dead-like man and lowered her head.

After thinking it over in her mind, she believed she understood just a little of what may be going on. But she couldn't be sure and... something-someone-was calling her somewhere. It was so strange but she felt compelled to follow it.

"I... think I may understand what's going on..." she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. "But, I cannot be sure unless I-" she cut herself off. Soran wouldn't understand what she was feeling right now, and it was pointless to try and make him understand that right now she felt the desire to submerge herself in water. He'd never go for it. "We... should go..."

Rai looked at the hourglass a moment longer and decided that she was quite bored with it now. Maybe there was something interesting outside of the room? Though, the man told her not to leave. But, what would he do? Tell her mommy and daddy? She was sure there was no harm in leaving if she didn't break anything.

So the young girl walked to the door and opened it up quietly, poking her head out into the hall just as she saw the last sign of a shadow going up the steps. The string from the door floated down upon her head and she decided that she must have tripped a booby trap! She closed the door quickly and looked around for a way to put the string back on the door.

Children such as herself are good climbers, but she surly couldn't climb this door!! And she surely couldn't balance on the door nob.

So, she decided that she could tie it anyway she wanted too and the booby trap would be stopped. So she tired the string around the door nob, making a pretty bow. She did it just like she did with her shoes!

Then she thought about where to go and decided that the shadow was leading her upstairs! She knew she had to be quiet. To be honest this was more fun than looking at a stupid shiny hourglass. She felt like a spy again and new that good spies were always quiet.

"Go where? Unless we what?" Soran demanded, taking Mizuki's shoulders and trying to get her eyes to meet his. He had a very bad feeling about this. "He told you something, didn't...wait, what did you say before?" His stern voice had begun dropping into something close to alarm.

* * *

Micah stretched his arms out and wandered into the kitchen, pouring a cup of hot water from a kettle on the stove. Opening a jar next to the stove, he dropped a few tea leaves into the water and swished the mug in his hand while it brewed. Tonight was turning out to be rather interesting. He looked at the glass a moment, thinking something over, then shrugged and got another mug from the cupboard.

As he began pouring the second cup, a sharp force suddenly slammed into his hand, throwing the kettle noisily across the room. Micah shot around only to have a knife thrust into his shoulder with enough force to slam him backward and pin him into the cupboard. He gasped in pain and reached to free himself, but the dark-clad form directly in front of him halted him with a grim rasp of a voice.

"Don't move a muscle, if you want to live, puppet master. Hands over your head, now." A cold blade pressed its tip into his neck. Micah frowned and slowly raised his hands up, grunting as he moved his impaled shoulder. "I see you're intelligent. Though apparently not smart enough. Sending your guard out of your presence on some menial errand on a night like this."

"Who sent you?" grunted Micah fiercely.

Mizuki's eyes meet Soran's with sadness. "We must go home. I must...perform something... ah..." All she wanted to do was have Soran hold her. The man's aura had been filled with suffering and fear, Mizuki had given him his last moments of peace. But even when she gave him a calmer aura, his mind was still jumbled, and his words no clearer.

"All he told me was, Five D." she wondered at the words significance. She dropped her eyes from Soran, feeling she couldn't look at him anymore in these conditions. She felt too weak under his gaze. Once, it had made her feel strong, but that was when he needed her help. He no longer needed her now, at least it was what the dark thoughts in her mind were telling her; her doubt plauging her confidence at loving Soran.

Soran's gaze darkened. She had dropped her eyes so he couldn't see them. Then did she understand. He shook his head in an anxious shudder, trying to think - the movement was uncharacteristically nervous. It was all going to happen again. "When will they start?" he demanded of Mizuki fiercely.

"He said..." Mizuki started, paused, then sighed and held her hands to her chest. A forboding feeling feel over the room and made her heart feel heavy in her chest. Obviously Soran knew what the man had just said. "He said it already began. Soran, what is happening?" Tears stung the back of her eyes. More tragedy? More fighting? Gods why...?